Delhi
Trip Start
Sep 08, 2008
1
4
13
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Delhi, capital of India, the rhythm and beat of this place surrounds the dusty, cramped roads, every mode fighting for position. I actually don't know quite how to put into words the feeling walking down one of the main shopping roads, I guess it's sort of like a vein, the blood pumping through the city, the streets are alive. Every imaginable colour, action, smell can be seen and smelt every second, each blink of the eye gives a different picture, a thousand different life tales, youth and age, saddness and happiness, chaotically complex. It's as close to life as i've got, it doesn't seem real, it's as if you've stepped into a film and you're the star finding your way through the dumdrums of Indian life. The streets are not just for selling, they're also workshops, people making metal sheets, bathroom taps, refurbishing old engines all next to one another with the odd soclicitor section where theres about 20 people all sat next to a typewriter waiting for their next customer.
Walking down this road you get kids begging you for money, school kids bugging you to take their money, the odd sunglass' seller optimistcally seeing whether you're a buyer (wearing sunglasses), people trying to strike up conversation inorder to get commission for a trip or purchase, and then people who are just genuinely helpful (difficult to differentiate).
It takes a while to fully adjust to staying here, eventually the choas washes over you, you have to succum to it, as do you the soaring heat compounded by the movement of 100 people, cows, rickshaws, bicycles, people with no legs, taxes and sellers pushing, like enforced osmosis, into each other. It is exhausting, but exhilirating.
Today we booked our trip into rathestan, first stop, tomorrow, a dusty, medival desert town, I ofcourse shall keep you up to date.
Walking down this road you get kids begging you for money, school kids bugging you to take their money, the odd sunglass' seller optimistcally seeing whether you're a buyer (wearing sunglasses), people trying to strike up conversation inorder to get commission for a trip or purchase, and then people who are just genuinely helpful (difficult to differentiate).
It takes a while to fully adjust to staying here, eventually the choas washes over you, you have to succum to it, as do you the soaring heat compounded by the movement of 100 people, cows, rickshaws, bicycles, people with no legs, taxes and sellers pushing, like enforced osmosis, into each other. It is exhausting, but exhilirating.
Today we booked our trip into rathestan, first stop, tomorrow, a dusty, medival desert town, I ofcourse shall keep you up to date.


Comments
India - delhi
What a great introduction to your travels in India - can't wait to hear more...
mum